From the 2003 OCIRA Fall Conference: Weaving Our Own Tapestry of Books

Ohio Reading Teacher, Fall 2003-Spring 2004 by Hendershot, Judith

Fiction

Little did we know that so many of the titles presented in the breakout session given by State Coordinator Nancy Short were destined to become award winners. Among them are the 2004 Newbery Medal, The Tales of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread which now joins the ranks of highly acclaimed modern fantasy novels. This somewhat dark story explores the themes of love, hope and forgiveness through the characters of Despereaux the mouse, a human king, the Princess Pea and a myriad of others. Its author Kate DiCamillo gave us Because of Winn-Dixie three years ago which captured a Newbery Honor Award.

In The Silent Boy, Lois Lowery again tackles some sensitive issues about the friendship between 14 year old Katy and a teen age boy named Jacob thought to be "touched" because he spends more time with animals than with people. This story set at the turn of the century revolves around strong characters, and the plot that gives the book an adult spin. Lowery's books are among those that appeal to young adolescents who long to see the struggles of other teens in any time period.

Locomotion is a masterful crafting by Jacqueline Woodsen about Lonnie, an African-America boy whose poems of grief and loss after the death of his parents in a New York City tenement fire tell a complex story. As she has done in past books, Woodsen gives her characters the power of resiliency in the face of overwhelming odds. This gritty tale is another Coretta Scott King Award winner for 2004 and is also recommended for the young adult audience.

Rodzina is a young Polish girl who finds herself on an orphan train headed West in the late 1800s. Karen Cushman is skilled for authentically placing uncommon characters in historical settings. Rodzina eagerly seeks placement with one of the families who await the arrival of the now legendary "orphan trains" that originated in New York City. Although Rodzina is stout and strong, her placements are dismal failures, and she returns to the orphan train twice before finding a woman who can relate to her sometime prickly nature. Readers get to know Rodzina well through her first person narrative voice, share her grief over the loss of her parents, her failed adoptions and her search for acceptance. Begun in the late 1800s to place children from the streets with families in need of help on farms in the Midwest and Western United States, the trains ran until 1938. This book has a perfect companion in Andrea Warren's Orphan Train Rider, a nonfiction account of this historical event.

Poetry

Young readers make the most of their literary experiences when they make connections, and In the Spin of Things by Rebecca Dotlich offers that opportunity. Ordinary things found in places most familiar to second through fifth graders swirl and bounce and flop in rhythmic verses making read-aloud a jolly event. The 23 free-form poems about items like ice cubes and pencil sharpeners are a perfect match for echo reads and choral recitation. Dotlich's poems are fluency builders for a wide range of grade levels.